The present invention relates to a PCM signal reproducing/recording apparatus represented by a rotary head digital audio tape recorder (R-DAT), and particularly relates to a PCM signal reproducing/recording apparatus in which data reproduced by a reproducing device is transmitted to a recording device.
In a PCM signal reproducing/recording apparatus, not only main data (PCM data) but sub-code data including sub-data and sub-ID for adding auxiliary information to the PCM data are recorded on a magnetic tape. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,688,225, 4,544,958, and 4,549,230. The sub-code data is for recording information such as order and time of the PCM data and has information of 64 bites per set. Eight sets of the same information are recorded on one track on a tape.
In the case where data obtained by reproducing a magnetic tape carrying sub-code data and PCM data recorded thereon is to be recorded by a recording device to obtain another magnetic tape having the same contents as that of the first-mentioned recorded magnetic tape, that is, when a so-called copy is made, it is necessary to transmit the data from a reproducing device to the recording device.
In such a case, it is generally considered that the whole of the data reproduced by the reproducing device is transmitted to the recording device so as to be recorded as it is. However, the recording device is not able to record the raw reproduced-data as it is, and therefore it is necessary that the recording device be additionally provided with a function to extract a necessary part, that is, the PCM data and sub-code data, from the received raw reproduced data to thereby reconstruct the recording data. Such a function is the same as that in the reproducing device to extract the PCM data and sub-code data from the data reproduced by the reproducing device. Accordingly, provision of such a function in the recording device means that the same function is provided wastefully in each of the reproducing device and the recording device.
It is therefore considered desirable that the PCM data and sub-code data extracted from the data reproduced in the reproducing device are transmitted as they are to the recording device. In this case, however, there is a problem that a number of signal lines are required because it is necessary to provide not only signal lines for transmitting the PCM data and sub-code data but signal lines for transmitting synchronizing signals.
Further, when the sub-code data reproduced in the reproducing device is directly inputted to the recording device, data representing the validity of the sub-code data, such as flags produced as a result of error correction carried out in the reproducing device, data ID designating the format of the sub-code data, and so on, are also transmitted. In the foregoing conventional apparatus, however, data processing to judge whether the sub-code data such as flags, the data ID, or the like, is correct or not is not carried out when the sub-code data reproduced by the reproducing device is inputted directly into the recording device, and therefore there has been a possibility that data incorrectly reproduced by the reproducing device is recorded on a tape in the recording device.